NN hospital clicks onto digital record-keeping

At 2:02 a.m. on Sunday, Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News went live with electronic medical records.

Even for a hospital with a weekend census of around 70 inpatients and sister facilities in the state that have already adopted the same system, the switchover from paper to digital record-keeping took months of planning and millions of dollars.

In all, Bon Secours Health System has invested almost $200 million to implement the system, starting with its Richmond properties. Mary Immaculate, the first of the company's Hampton Roads facilities to make the switch, spent $2.1 million for the upgrade. "We have made a big investment in technology and training and look forward to positive patient experiences," says Patricia L. Robertson, CEO of Mary Immaculate.

ConnectCare, powered by Epic, links all patient medical information, including medical history, allergies, test results and medications in a single, confidential electronic record. "It's the largest vendor in the country and is known for its tight security," says Jeff Doucette, chief nursing officer at the hospital. "Patients have become very accustomed to the use of technology with medical records. They can rest comfortably that they're well protected."

Though the records are accessible to all within the Bon Secours health system — its

other Hampton Roads facilities are scheduled to "go live" later in 2012 — differences among electronic systems prevent direct sharing with other health organizations.

Advantages of electronic records include allowing multiple personnel to view the records at a single site at the same time — and from anywhere — and getting lab and X-ray results distributed quicker. Also, once users become familiar with the system, documentation takes less time. It is also expected to reduce, if not eliminate, the duplication of tests and procedures.

Planning for the switch-over started last summer and training sessions kicked off in February. In all, Bon Secours provided more than 15,300 training hours for 1,311 employees and another 2,640 hours to train more than 300 physicians, according to spokeswoman Lynne Zultanky.

The "go-live" early-morning hour was chosen for when the number of inpatients would be at its lowest and the emergency room, which treats between 125 and 135 patients daily at weekends, would potentially be at its least busy.

Zultanky explains that the paper records are kept and scanned into the new electronic charts on an as-needed basis. "Part of the training is to go through planned down times while the system upgrades to ensure that we're not so used to it that we can't function with paper," she says. "In the case of a disaster we have to have functionality with paper. There's significant contingency planning."

The staff also had plenty of practice time, "playing in the sandbox," to keep their skills fresh before going live. Also, ahead of the 2 a.m. deadline, all inpatient medications were pre-loaded into the system along with data on anyone in the emergency department.

"All the information follows the patient in the Bon Secours system. All the documentation is available to all clinicians. It's much safer and we have bar-code scanning for medications," says Doucette.

Zultanky characterizes the next couple of weeks as a stabilization period. "It will take people a while to get fluent," she says. "It's all about patient safety and implementing best practices."